A quiet undertaker cares for his exotic fish, and his silent bodies as they arrive. One day he receives a ticket to the movies, and the movie turns out to be of him! Convinced that he is being targeted by a TV reality show, he is dragged into a fantastic journey exploring love, death, and ultimate creativity.
A cycle of six thematically linked stories, droll renditions of the nightmares ensuing upon misplaced, or (of course) excessive, bibliophilia. A writer encounters a website where all his possible future books are on display; a lonely man faces an infinite flow of hardback books through his mailbox; an ordinary library turns by night into an archive of souls; the Devil sets about raising standards of infernal literacy; one book houses all books; a connoisseur of hardcovers strives to expel a lone paperback from his collection. Winner of the 2003 World Fantasy Award Longlisted for 2004 Internati... continue